Matt Schaub leads AFC to Pro Bowl victory

Moving the Pro Bowl from Hawaii back to the mainland certainly goosed attendance, but it didn't do much for defense.

In a tackling-optional shootout typical of the event, the AFC shined the brightest on Sunday night at newly re-named Sun Life Stadium.

Houston Texans quarterback Matt Schaub threw for 189 yards and two touchdowns to spark a 41-34 win and earn MVP honors in his Pro Bowl debut.

"This is a game you watch as a kid and hope to play in at some point in your life," Schaub said.

Chris Johnson's 2-yard touchdown run put the AFC ahead to stay with 5:59 to play, and Steelers linebacker James Harrison intercepted Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo with 2:07 remaining to seal the result and knot the all-time series at 20-20.

Chargers receiver Vincent Jackson led the AFC with seven catches for 122 yards and a score. Eagles receiver DeSean Jackson had two touchdown grabs in a losing cause as the teams combined for 987 yards of offense.

"Well, it's a no-defense game," said losing coach Wade Phillips of the Cowboys.

A crowd of 70,697, second-largest in Pro Bowl history, sat through a steady rain for much of the night. Only the 1959 game in Los Angeles (72,250) has drawn a larger crowd in NFL all-star history.

The past 30 Pro Bowls had been played in Honolulu. Not since 1979 in Los Angeles had this game been played in the Lower 48.

With a whopping 34 replacement players on the final rosters – including Schaub -- the game featured 35 first-time Pro Bowl selections, 19 of them for the NFC. It would have been 20 if Vikings tackle Bryant McKinnie hadn't been kicked off the team for missing four practices last week.

The AFC jumped out to a 14-3 lead just eight minutes in on a pair of Schaub touchdown passes. The first one went for 33 yards to former University of Miami star Andre Johnson, Schaub's Texans teammate, and the other went for 23 yards to Denver's Brandon Marshall.

The NFC roared back to take a 17-14 lead behind a pair of Aaron Rodgers touchdown strikes.

AFC kicker Dan Carpenter, one of just two Dolphins in the game, connected from 30 and 26 yards but also missed a 36-yarder just before halftime. Safety Yeremiah Bell, the other Dolphins representative, dropped a possible interception in the second quarter.

Trailing 34-31 early in the fourth quarter, the Eagles' Asante Samuel (Boyd Anderson) intercepted a Vince Young pass for Chad Ochocinco near the goal line. Samuel's 35-yard return set up a tying field goal, but Schaub re-entered the game to lead the winning touchdown drive.

This was Schaub's second strong game in this building in a span of five weeks. He passed for 286 yards and two scores in leading the Texans to a 27-20 win over the Dolphins on Dec. 27.

Raiders cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha left the game with a knee injury early in the second quarter and did not return.

A 64-yard interception return for a touchdown by Steelers linebacker LaMarr Woodley was wiped out by penalty in the second quarter. Mario Williams, also of the Texans, had a game-high two sacks.

The game featured little hard tackling, but Ochocinco, the Bengals' talkative receiver, got popped twice in a span of a few third-quarter plays by Mike Jenkins (Cowboys) and former UM star Antrel Rolle (Cardinals).